Where do you want to live for the rest of your life?

I don’t feel old. Nevertheless, if I was in States I’d probably start receiving mailers from AARP as of next year (I’m in my mid 50s). Thanks to training in powerlifting for the past 8 years I’m a fair bit stronger now than I was in my 20s or 30s. I’m not a senior citizen […]

La Perle des Antilles

This may sound maudlin, but sometimes hate does turn into love and sometimes, if you’re in the right frame of mind, a challenging situation is indeed an opportunity. By the time I left home at 18, I had moved house 17 times in 3 continents, 4 countries, 3 US states and the District of Columbia. […]

Return of the prodigal Hamburger

People with German ancestry are the single largest ethnic group in US. Yet, it’s a testament to their ubiquity that it’s often not understood by Americans themselves just how subtly German popular culture has influenced their own. My mother’s family are typical German-Americans as they live in Midwest in a semi-rural setting. German-americans largely live […]

The Mythical Land of Oz

I was born in The Land Down Under. While it wasn’t exactly an accident of birth (heck, I was even conceived in Oz) my birthplace is not one of my more salient facts. If you met me today absolutely nothing about me screams, or even whispers, Australian. I am relatively unsullied by and downright ignorant […]

Been down so long looks like up to me

To those of you who started reading this post because you are fans of Richard Farina – my apologies. This post will not discuss his seminal novel of the same name/title (see above). For some reason when I sat down to ponder reverse culture shock this phrase/title literally popped into my head. Score one for […]